March 18th Downtimes

[VirusZero]

So earlier today (approximately 1:50PM Eastern Time) the site began showing error code 500 messages when attempting to post in at least a few spots (the great miscellaneous is one such location where it's fond of tossing errors).

Error code 500 is a very generic message that a server gives when it detects an error has happened but no further info on what that error is or why it happened is immediately available. Often requires contacting the host for more info.

Spoiler:

502 - Bad gateway (A server before the site screwed up and sent an incorrect request. This is often noticeable for sites that use DDoS protection and the DDoS protection either fails or goes down on it's own. )

503 - Unavailable (usually because of maintenance or because the server is overloaded with requests.)

504 - Server time out (the server took too long to get the user's request, like when you click a page that's a request, and thus closed it.)

507 - No storage space left (this is when the server is so full that it doesn't even have enough storage space left to handle the request...)

509 - Bandwidth exceeded (this is when the allocated space for the server/host is exceeded.)

I attempted to submit a support ticket to find out what was going on (at 2:05PM) but at that time the entire site and our host's client panel (where I log in to post support tickets) went offline.

The site and host came back online an hour later (at 3:00 PM). But was quickly (within 45 minutes) put back offline.

It came back approximately 5:10PM though stability is questionable right now and it's likely that the site will go offline again tonight. I have submitted a support ticket though so, hopefully, I can get more answers about what's going on. (And if we're lucky something to stop this issue.)

As a precautionary heads up... I, unfortunately, will not be around most of tomorrow (long day at work) and won't be able to check in at any point. At least until later in the evening.
So if you see the site is offline/unavailable sorry but there isn't anything I can do. (Though if it is a DDoS attack, there really isn't much I can do aside from just wait it out.)

Again, I encourage everyone to check out our old site located here since a copy of this will be posted there just in case.

[VirusZero]

Just to clarify this issue and what was going on...

I jumped the gun a bit when I stated there was downtime. There wasn't any.

What was happening however was a case where I received an error message and then tried to find out what was causing it. In doing so I inadvertently caused the server to temporarily block me. (The server itself stayed online, but presented to me like it was offline.)

Now because the server we're on is connected to the server that the client panel is on... I also got blocked from it too.

I was able to make contact with our host and through a support ticket (and about a dozen replies) we were able to figure out what the issue was.

Spoiler:

The actual issue was that when I upgraded the version of the forum, I had not combined the old htaccess file (a file used to control who can view what parts of the site, which I have added all the IPs for Chinese and Russian spammers to) with the new one provided by the software developer (which added better support for search engines scouring our site).

Because of this, certain topics/posts (I have no idea which ones would have been affected beyond the Mars One I referenced in the chat) were being stopped by the 500 message.

The issue has now been fixed now though. However if any issues do come up, please let me know.